MBHB snippets Alert - The .XXX Top Level Domain: What Do I Need to Know Now?

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP
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BACKGROUND

With the growth of the Internet at the end of the twentieth century, so came the growth (perhaps unsurprisingly) of the amount of adult content available on the Internet. In fact, the amount of adult content on the Internet became so great that in 2000, Florida-based ICM Registry (ICM) submitted a proposal to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) proposing a .XXX top-level domain (TLD) as a way to consolidate such content on the Internet. The proposal was met with both significant support and resistance. Indeed, during a public comment period regarding the proposed .XXX TLD in 2005, nearly 2000 comments were received. Proponents of the .XXX TLD claim it will make the Web safer by identifying all adult-content websites under one TLD, all of which can then be blocked by parents, schools, and the like; however, opponents claim it will create a virtual red light district, and encourage the undesirable dissemination of adult content.

Throughout the approximately ten-year period from late 2000 to mid-2011, ICM made multiple proposals to the ICANN Board, initially requesting that the .XXX domain be an unsponsored TLD, and later requesting that the .XXX domain be a sponsored TLD. A number of ICM’s proposals were not accepted, based on technical insufficiencies in the agreement between ICANN and ICM, questions regarding whether certain sponsorship criteria had been met, and public policy issues. In March 2011, however, ICANN and ICM entered into a Sponsored TLD Registry Agreement for the operation of the .XXX TLD, whereby ICM is the “registry operator” for the .XXX domain. Subsequently, ICM has entered into contracts with a number of companies that will serve as “registrars,” which are the companies through which .XXX domains can be registered or blocked.

Please see full publication below for more information.

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